Where there's a worm there's a whale: First distribution model of marine parasites provides revealing insights
Thursday, January 26, 2012 - 00:30
in Biology & Nature
Each year around 20,000 people are infected by nematodes of the genus Anisakis and suffer from illnesses ranging from gastrointestinal diseases to serious allergic reactions as a result. For the first time, parasitologists have gathered data on the occurrence of the parasitic worm and have modeled the worldwide distribution of individual species in the ocean. The resulting maps not only enable statements to be made on the occurrence and migration behavior of certain hosts of the parasites, such as Baleen or toothed whales, but also provide conclusions on the risk of human infection.